Introduction to Bushwalking on the Grand Strzelecki Track

It's been a while since my last post, six months in fact. Winter in Victoria isn't a terribly popular time to go bushwalking. But this winter did see the opportunity for some plans to be made for a fun weekend walk.

Over the last six months I've had several friends talk to me about taking them, and their boys, on a weekend bushwalk to introduce them to the joys of this brilliant sport. After a bit of discussion, some thinking and planning, a lot of procrastination, and finally some decisions, we decided on a section of the Grand Strzelecki Track. This is a relatively new track that was officially opened in May 2012. The section we decided to walk was the Balook to Macks Creek section. While this section is only about 10 kms long, it allows us plenty of time to explore on the way, climb waterfalls and have some fun at camp.

The first night we parked at the Tarra-Bulga Information centre and walked about 400m to our first campsite. This was the old Balook State School which ceased functioning as a school in 1954 (I think). It was converted to a school camp some time through the 2000's but from the six foot trees on the volleyball court it's been some time since it's seen school groups. For a small piece of family history, my dad was one of the last students to attend Balook Primary School.

Friday night saw a small shower of rain go through but not enough to be any bother. What was a bother, for anyone thinking of walking this track, was the lack of water at the campsite. The nearest available water was back at the visitor centre. This wasn't a problem but a note on the map would have been appreciated.

Starting out near the old Balook State School

 Saturday saw us wake to a clear, blue sky with nothing but some left over drizzle on the tents. A quick breakfast and we had our packs on ready for the days walk. The track leaves the school and heads into the park proper. The track is a beautiful, wide, leaf-strewn track where 3 or 4 people can walk side by side. There was the obligatory stopping to adjust packs and shoes but we quickly settled into our stride.

The track descends steadily until it meets Wild Cherry Track and we turn left. At this point of the track we start to discover how damp a rainforest can be. Yep, we're walking through some of the remnants of the temperate rainforest that originally covered this area.

Wild Cherry track junction

At this point we saw the sign to Macks Creek Hall so we knew we were on the right track although not going all the way to the hall. The track remained quite wide at this point but we did meet some of the local fauna at this point in the form of leeches. 

Wild Cherry Track

 We continued on a steady downhill for the next couple of hours avoiding the damper spots to stop. Along the way we saw, and heard evidence of the local wildlife although no sightings as such. This probably had more to do with the amount of talking going on rather than the lack of wildlife. The track became steep enough, and muddy enough, that we almost all took a fall at some stage. Thankfully none were serious, just seriously funny.

Pause for a snack and leech check

We reached to bottom end of the park and noticed an obvious change in the bush as we passed from original rainforest to pine reforestation. Although dropping to the creek in the gully the ground became steadily drier as the bush opened up. We eventually came to a great waterfall that was asking to be climbed so a rest break was called. As is always the case, there were a few minor scratches, scrapes and bumps from climbing but nothing serious so we continued on to our campsite. 

Climbing the falls

The campsite we were aiming for tonight turned out to be quite popular with 4x4s. When we arrived there were 5 or so 4x4s well established in the camping area. Not being aware this might be a possibility meant we had an impromptu discussion to decide what we would do. The suggestions made included walk to the cars at the end of the track (another 1 km or so) and drive home, drive the cars and the packs back to Balook while the kids ran back u the track, or continue walking and hope we came across another campsite.

Macks Creek

After only 400m or so we came to a section where the track opened up enough for us to fit 5 or 6 tents with beautiful access to the creek. We settled in for the night and were soon met by a couple of friends who couldn't make the whole weekend but came for the night. We had a great night learning to whittle sticks, telling stories and messing around in the creek.

The group of walkers

We all had a great weekend and it was a good introduction to bushwalking. No doubt there will be more walks in the future. But how to fit these in while also getting out with my family. Oh well, guess I'll just have to make time for more bushwalking.